Royal Assassin

TRIVIA II: Jaden & Jade

JADE – Jaden:

The idea of the character occurred when I wanted to create a story of a woman who was forced into marriage with a man who was unwilling to get married. The idea came from a manga (Japanese comic), which if anyone had heard of is entitled Reimei No Arcana (I don’t know the English title). The story is about a forced marriage between two countries’ royalties. But the Prince is rather horrible at first (like arrogant, snobbish and cocky…the perfect ingredients for attraction or repulsion, you decide) and he liked to degrade and bully the Princess.

So there was a scene which caught my attention which was when the Prince insulted the Princess’s servant/guard (something like that) and the Princess was furious at the Prince that she threatened to kill the Prince with a blade. From that point on, it stirred my imagination and before I knew it, I came up with an idea that ‘what if the woman who was forced into marriage was also very skilled in combats and swordsmanship, and not only that what if she was hired to kill her husband?’

So that was how the backstory of Jaden came to be. On to her appearance; I wanted to adopt a different look for the assassin. And since she was also royalty, there should also be some refinement and also some hidden scars. A queen and a killer (I know, weird combo). Apart from that, I didn’t want a typical hair color like blonde or brunette on her and so after watching this particular anime, I thought ‘What if the girl’s hair was green?’ and not to make it sounded like ‘Um green?’ I used name of gemstones to describe her hair. And out of mineral stones that were green, the one that popped into my mind was jade, hence the name Jadelyne.

That was all to it actually. But when I opened the book I borrowed and searched about jade, what I found was quite intriguing and fitting with Jaden’s character. And it was all coincidental.

So here’s the details; the green jade is quite valued in China and it was said to be a symbol of royalty (see the relation?!). This type of mineral is so tough that it was even used to make knives and axes (kinda fitting for a killer, right?). Jade has other colors like pale green, white, yellow and even violet but the highly prized is the emerald-green Imperial Jade. Oh, for chemistry enthusiast, the other name for Jade/Jadeite is Sodium aluminium iron silicate (phew!). The facts I just wrote about was sourced from, okay let me do some referencing (hehe…I don’t know why I feel compelled to do this…I am such a nerd)

Here you go:

John Farndon, S. P. (2011). The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Minerals, Rocks & Fossils of the World. Anness Publishing.

Okay, from the Internet, in terms of jade’s myths and legends or folklore, it is said that jade has healing properties. If anyone wears jade, he or she can live longer and has more strength (just like Jaden). Plus, it is considered as a symbol of love and virtue.

So, that was how Jadelyne was created!